Women, Volume 1, Issue 1 (March 2021) – 6 articles

Pregnancy rates in women on dialysis have increased in the last decades, thus making it a topic of growing interest. The rarity of this event is predominantly due to fertility problems and to the high rates of pregnancy failure including stillbirth, fetal, and neonatal deaths. We conducted a narrative review of existing literature in order to analyze the major issues about pregnancy on dialysis to give the reader a fully updated perspective about this topic which, even if not common, is becoming more and more frequent. Even if recently acquired knowledge has improved diagnosis and treatment of dialysis pregnancies focusing on several aspects, pregnancy on dialysis remains a great challenge for obstetricians and should be managed by a multidisciplinary expertise team. Dialysis in pregnancy may be necessary for women previously affected by end stage renal disease (ESRD) becoming pregnant, or in case of acute renal injury presenting for the first time during gestation or, again, in case of existent renal pathology worsening during pregnancy and requiring dialysis. Although some evidence suggests that more intensive dialysis regimens are correlated with better obstetric outcomes, the optimal therapeutic protocol still remains to be established. Full article

Delusional disorder is a difficult-to-treat clinical condition with health needs that are often undertreated. Although individuals with delusional disorder may be high functioning in daily life, they suffer from serious health complaints that may be sex-specific. The main aim of this narrative review is to address these sex-specific health needs and to find ways of integrating their management into service programs. Age is an important issue. Delusional disorder most often first occurs in middle to late adult life, a time that corresponds to menopause in women, and menopausal age correlates with increased development of both somatic and psychological health problems in women. It is associated with a rise in the prevalence of depression and a worsening of prior psychotic symptoms. Importantly, women with delusional disorder show low compliance rates with both psychiatric treatment and with medical/surgical referrals. Intervention at the patient, provider, and systems levels are needed to address these ongoing problems. Full article

Clinically, infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after a certain period. In contrast, sterility is defined as the inability to produce a biological child; however, this is not a practical definition that can be applied in a clinical setting to a patient’s diagnosis. Unlike infertility, sterility is rarely discussed in biomedical and clinical literature and is often used synonymously with infertility. Infertility affects about 10% of couples globally, but the prevalence of sterility remains unknown. We divide sterility into three subtypes natural, clinical, and hardship. To estimate sterility prevalence, we analyzed primary literature and meta-analysis papers on the rates of live births and pregnancies throughout several treatments of infertile couples (e.g., untreated patients, in vitro fertilization-treated, and patients administered other treatments). This analysis indicates that all treatments fail in delivering a biological child to most couples, suggesting that most infertile couples may fail to conceive. More comprehensive primary studies are needed to provide a precise estimate of sterility. Furthermore, research is needed to study the causes of sterility, as well as develop methods for diagnosis and treatment that are financially affordable and emotionally tolerable. Altogether, sterility is an under-discussed condition that is more common than expected, as many infertile couples are unable to conceive and are, in effect, sterile. Full article

Cancer represents one of the most common causes of death worldwide. Among women, breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer and the principal cause of death due to malignant disease, while cervical cancer ranks fourth for both incidence and mortality. The present review aims to analyze the epidemiology of cervical and breast cancer (incidence, mortality, survival rates, and trends). Moreover, the most important primary and secondary preventive strategies (reduction of risk factors, exposure, vaccination, cancer screening) intended to reduce the future burden of cervical and breast cancer, that should be adopted actively and free of charge, were discussed in accordance to more recent and evidence-based findings. Full article

A first step towards personalized medicine is to consider whether, for some disorders, the safest and most effective treatment of women needs to differ from standard guideline recommendations developed on the basis of clinical trials conducted, for the most part, in men. A second step is to consider how women’s reproductive stages—pre-pubertal years, menstrual phases, pregnancy trimesters, lactation and postpartum periods, menopausal and postmenopausal/aging status—affect the optimal choice of treatment. This review focuses on these two steps in the treatment of psychosis, specifically schizophrenia. It discusses genetics, precursors and symptoms of schizophrenia, reproductive and associated ethical issues, antipsychotic drug response and adverse effects, substance abuse, victimization and perpetration of violence, and issues of immigration and of co-morbidity. The conclusions, while often based on clinical experience and theoretical considerations rather than strictly on the evidence of randomized controlled trials, are that clinical recommendations need to consider clinical and role differences that exist between men and women and make appropriate correction for age and reproductive status. Full article